A carnival of technology

I like Target, but I’ve had trouble shopping there. I’ll find products in places I don’t expect, or not at all. Today I had my worst experience to date, finding only one of the items I desired and having that taken from me at the checkout. What follows is an email that I shoved into Target’s general-purpose contact web form. This is not a desire for reparations but rather a statement of disappointment. I will still shop at Target, but I think that I’ll keep alternatives in mind more than I did in the past.

Their web form removed all of my paragraph breaks. I do hope that the readers take out their frustration on the crappy web designers instead of me. I have added them back below and tried to arrange the text into a space wider than 40 columns.

Subject: My store experience

First Name: David

Last Name: Shea

City: Sandy Springs

State: GA

E-Mail Address: david@gophernet.org

Comments: Dear Target,

          I generally enjoy shopping at your stores. The convenience, prices
          and environment are all attractive enough to keep me coming back.
          However, I've noticed of late that I'm finding myself unable to find
          all the items I seek. It doesn't really matter whether or not you
          carry them; if I can't find them, I'm not going to purchase them.

          Today I visited your store on Johnson Ferry Rd in Sandy Springs, GA.
          I entered with the goal of buying a mailing tube, a pair of shoes and
          something to hang pictures on the wall. The picture hangers were the
          easiest found, and I put a set of 3M Command adhesive picture hangers
          into my cart and continued on my quest. The mailing tube was nowhere
          to be found, so I assume that you don't carry them.  I wasn't so much
          upset about this as slightly annoyed, since it is a bit of a
          specialty item, but I had some small hopes. As for the shoes, I found
          exactly one pair of sneakers in my size (13), and I decided not to
          buy them. There weren't gaps in the shelf for more size 13 sneakers
          that all happened to be gone; there was simply only one pair. To
          dictate so what people of a certain foot size must wear while
          offering a sea of choices to those with size 7 or 8 feet--or even
          12--seems like an odd practice for selling shoes.

          I ended up grabbing some water filters that I forgot I needed, which
          I suppose is a small win for you, but I only saw them because I was
          wandering the store looking for the shipping supplies. This strikes
          me as a hollow victory. When I checked out, I ended up leaving with
          only with the filters. The picture hangers, as I was told by the
          cashier, should have been in a set, and they could not be sold as I
          found them on the rack, with only the part that I actually cared
          about available. I left with only the filters, a product a didn't
          even realize I needed, which, though it did my part to keep the
          wheels of commerce turning for another day, left me feeling empty and
          upset. For a store whose slogan impels me to expect more, I was a bit
          disappointed.

Location of store Johnson Ferry Rd, Sandy Springs, GA
  where you shop: